“Well, I have to return to Chicago for a while. I can’t just quit my job with no notice. But…” Honey cast a sidelong glance at Buck, a smile tugging at her mouth. “I think we’ll be back before too long.”
“Don’t go making promises, woman. I still have to find us a halfway decent house.” Buck glared round at the crew. “One that’s nottooclose to all you motherlovers.”
“Don’t head off to Chicago too fast,” Edith said earnestly. “Not until we’ve thrown a proper welcome-to-the-pack party, at least.”
“And had a chance to hear the full story of how you two got together.” Rory raised an eyebrow at Buck. “I have a feeling it’s quite a tale.”
“Yeah.” Joe winked at Honey. “You’ll have to tell us all the juicy details, Honey.”
“Don’t you dare,” Buck muttered to her.
She laughed, looping her arm through his. “Maybe notallthe details.”
With a final flurry of hugs and farewells, the hotshot crew departed with their kids. Buck’s gaze followed the big transport as it bumped away, lingering even when it had disappeared from sight.
“Youcouldun-retire, you know,” she murmured. “You have shifter strength and healing, after all, and control over your animal. You could go back to firefighting, if you wanted.”
“I have better things to do with my time.” He drew her close against his body, hands sliding down over her hips. “Besides,someonealready seems to have committed me to working as a counselor again.”
She draped her arms around his neck, leaning into his solid warmth. “Are you trying to tell me youdon’twant to come back next summer?”
“Hmph. Like I have any choice, between you and my motherloving animal’s idiotic pack instinct. If I said no, I’d just find myself waking up on that damn roof again.”
“Hmm. Remind me what it was you said about your firefighter crew, again?”
“What, that they’re all feral motherlovers who shouldn’t be allowed on the couch, let alone trusted with chainsaws?”
“No, the other thing.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “I seem to recall it was something along the lines of ‘when you spend that much time walking through fire together, you start to feel more like a family?’”
Buck grunted. “I must have been suffering from a concussion that day. So?”
“So…. how long did you spend working as a hotshot, again?”
“Over twenty years. You know this, woman. Why the sudden interest in my job history?”
“No reason.” She batted her eyelashes innocently. “Remind me. Before you became a wildland firefighter, what were you?”
Buck was started to look slightly hunted. “A Marine.”
“Mmmhmm. So, just to get this straight. You, of your own free will, have spent your entire adult life in dangerous, demanding jobs that most people would actively avoid. Jobs thatjust happento require working as part of a small, tight-knit crew.”
Buck opened his mouth, paused, and shut it again.
“Exactly.” She poked him in the chest. “And you think it’s youranimalthat needs a pack?”
“All right, all right,” he growled. “God damn it, Honey. Are you ever going to let me get away withanycomforting self-delusions?”
She grinned, pulling his mouth down to hers. “No.”
He kissed her, long and deep. “Good.”
EPILOGUE
Sometimes, Honey couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in just a few short seasons.
A year ago today, she’d been packing her suitcase in her shabby rented apartment, not daring to hope for more than a few months’ respite from her lonely life. And now here she was, sitting in the swing chair on the porch of her own cozy cabin, watching the sun rise over the mountains.
It still would have been magical, even without the unicorns.
